December 6, 1989, was the day female engineering students at the Ecole Polytechnique were massacred in what is called The Montreal Massacre. Marc Lepine had a rifle and a knife. He injured twenty-eight; fourteen were killed. Today is a day of remembrance, not just for those women but for all women who have suffered violence. In Winnipeg, we mourn the missing Indigenous women. But every day, women are abused. It is the time we stood up and demand that the abuse whether it is physical or mental or both STOP. No more misogyny. No more sexist jokes. No more harassment. Women are intelligent and passionate. We do not need to do favours for men who have the power to succeed.

I received a Canada Council Jean A Chalmers Grant to conduct research into the impact that Vietnam era resisters who came to Canada had on Canadian ceramics. To date, there are 117 individuals in my study. Conference presentations have been given in Dublin, at the University of Szeged in Hungary, and at the first Craft Biennale at the Art Gallery of Burlington. Articles are in press and exhibitions are being planned. I am still seeking individuals who fit my profile: came to Canada because they did not wish to be part of the support for the Vietnam War and who were already trained in ceramics or learned after they immigrated in order to make a living. If you know of someone, please have them contact me at my university e-mail address: maryann.steggles@umanitoba.ca

The image on today’s posting is Walter Ostrom’s China Bottle. Ostrom came to Canada because of the Vietnam War in 1969. He had a contract to teach at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) in Halifax. Ostrom was elated because he would be teaching at one of the hippest art schools in North America but also because he was going to be living in Canada: ‘The land of Pierre Trudeau, a friend of both Castro and draft dodgers, leading a nation of peaceniks’.

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Having great fun making sake cups for the Kendo Society

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